Stroke Style

In addition to Stroke paint, discussed in the previous section,
Stroke attributes include stroke Width, Join style,
Cap style, Dashes, and Markers. All of
these attributes can be set using the Stroke style tab in the
Fill and Stroke dialog. Stroke width can also be set using the
Style Indicator (see below). The last part of this section is
a discussion on how to make complex strokes.

Stroke style tab.

Warning

This section not yet updated for Inkscape v0.92.

Stroke Width

Stroke width can be changed by using the Stroke style
tab in the Fill and Stroke dialog, or by using the
Style Indicator via a pop-up menu or by Stroke gestures.

Note

If you want the line width to transform with an object, you must
toggle on this option using the icon that
is in the Tool Controls when the Select Tool is in use.

Stroke style tab.
Stroke width can be changed by using the Width entry box
on the Stroke style tab of the Fill and Stroke dialog.
The units are specified by the drop-down menu on the right.

Style Indicator.
A Right Mouse Click on the Stroke width part of
the Style Indicator
opens a pop-up menu that allows the stroke width unit to be changed
as well as a preset width to be selected. The stroke can also be removed
with this menu.

Stroke Gestures. Stroke Gestures is the name give to changing
the Stroke width by dragging the mouse from the Stroke
width section of the Stroke style indicator into the Inkscape window.
The principle is
that as you drag the mouse, the line width will change
proportionally to the distance from a 45° line from the
indicator. The farther away you are, the more subtle the changes
can be. The maximum width increase is a factor of 4 and the
minimum width is zero. See
Color Gestures
for more details.

Warning

This section not yet updated for Inkscape v0.92.

Join Style

The Join style is how two lines meeting at
a corner should be joined together. The options are:

Miter join.

Round join.

Bevel join.

The different Join styles are shown in the figure following.

Join styles: Miter (left), Round (center), Bevel (right). Note
how the node is at the center of curvature
for the Round style.

When the Miter option is selected, the length
of the projection can become quite long if the two lines intersect
at a small angle. In this case, it may be preferable to use the
Bevel style. The Miter
limit controls the point at which a
Miter join automatically is converted to a
Bevel join. If the distance from the inner
intersection point to the tip of the triangle ("m" in the
following figure) measured in stroke widths is more than the
Miter limit, the join will be drawn in the
Bevel style.

On the left is a Miter join. If the distance "m" as measured in
stroke widths is more than the Miter limit, the corner will be
drawn with a Bevel join as shown on the right. (The
nodes are shown as diamonds.)

Note

The visualbounding box is determined by assuming that the
Join style is Round.

Warning

This section not yet updated for Inkscape v0.92.

Cap Style

The Cap style determines how the end of a line
is drawn. The options are:

The visualbounding box is
determined by assuming the Cap style is Round.

Warning

This section not yet updated for Inkscape v0.92.

Dashes

A wide selection of Dash patterns are available from the
drop-down Dash menu of the Stroke style tab of the
Fill and Stroke dialog. The patterns scale with the stroke
width.

Note

Each Dash takes on the Cap style as
shown in the figure below.

The same Dash style but with different Cap styles: Butt (left),
Round (center), Square (right). The nodes
are shown as diamonds for reference.

The entry box next to the Dash menu is for
the Dash offset. The offset shifts the Dash
pattern along the path. The units are in stroke width.

Warning

This section not yet updated for Inkscape v0.92.

Markers

Markers are objects like arrow heads placed along a path. Different
Markers can be specified for the start, middle, and end of a path.
Middle Markers are placed at the location of every non-end node.

Examples of Markers. From the top down:
Start arrow at the start of a line.
Start arrow at the end of a line.
Start arrow in the middle of a line
(a node has been added).
Scissors at middle nodes.
Scissors at middle nodes, path reversed.

A custom Marker can be created by selecting the object or
objects that you wish to use as a Marker and then using the
Object →
Object to Marker command. The selected objects will
disappear and a new entry will appear in the Marker pull-down
menus of the Fill and Stroke dialog. The Marker is created
assuming a horizontal orientation for the path. The point of
attachment to a node is the center of the bounding box for the
Marker. Warning: While the marker will display fine in
Inkscape, only a fourth of it will be displayed in most other
SVG renderers. Adding the attribute style="overflow:visible" to
the Marker definition will fix the problem (Bug). Note, that
custom Markers can be added to Inkscape; see
the section called “Custom Markers” in
Chapter 24, Customization.

Examples of custom Markers. The objects on the left were
converted to Markers by first duplicating and then using
the Object →
Object to Marker command. They were then
applied to the paths on the right.

Note: The Object →
Object to Marker procedure is a bit buggy.
The new Marker may not show up in the list until another
Marker is applied to the path. If multiple objects are
converted, the z-order is reversed. Group the objects first to
avoid this problem.

Two problems exist with Markers. The first is that Markers
do not
take the color of the stroke. This can be worked around by using the
Color Markers to Match Stroke
extension, by editing
the SVG file with the XML Editor, or
adding a custom, pre-colored Marker.
An alternative solution is to convert the path with the Markers to
a path (Path →
Object to Path
(Shift+Ctrl+C)). This creates a Group with the
Markers converted to separate objects, which can be colored
independently.

The second problem is that Markers scale with line width. The line
width had to be reduced in the above figure for the scissors
examples, to give the scissors a reasonable size. Again, one could
edit the SVG file to adjust the Marker size.

Tip

To place middle Markers evenly along a path you need to have
evenly spaced nodes. For straight horizontal and vertical lines,
nodes can be distributed evenly using the Align and Distribute
dialog. To add just one node halfway between two existing nodes
click on the Insert icon in the
Node Tool-Tool Controls. To add one node anywhere
on an existing path, double-click on the path where you want the
node (or single click while holding down the
Ctrl+Alt
keys). To add multiple nodes evenly spaced between existing nodes, use
the Add
Nodes extension.

Another thing to note is that Markers are included in the
Visualbounding box calculation.

Warning

This section not yet updated for Inkscape v0.92.

Complex Strokes

A complex Stroke can be created by overlaying two or more paths
with different Stroke attributes. The easiest way to make exact
copies of a path is to use the Edit →
Duplicate
(Ctrl+D) command.

If one uses Clones of a path (Edit →
Clone
→
Create Clone
(Alt+D)),
then one can adjust the original path at a later time and all the
Clones will change too. This requires unsetting the Stroke
attributes of the original path (use the XML editor to unset the
Stroke width). Since the original path's attributes are
unset, it will not be visible and cannot be used as part of the
visible Stroke.